Norway a country of Happiness and Oil

In the late 1960s, Norway discovered important oil deposits in the North Sea. This was the beginning of an unprecedented boom for this country, which in 2015 is the 7th largest producer and the 3rd largest natural gas exporter in the world.

Surrounded by mountains and fjords, the climate in Norway is rather harsh, and the population of 5.2 million inhabitants at that time mostly lived from incomes from farming and fishing.

Suddenly this discovery helped to strengthen its GDP and to set up one of the most prosperous economies in the world. But they don’t want to rely only on this ‘easy’ money.

So, the Norwegians have created the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund (the oil bank) equivalent to 730 billion euros, the largest in the world, and only inject 5% per year into the local economy.

But in 2015, after suffering the oil crisis, they were forced to take out a part of the total amount (2.6%), which is still below the maximum authorized limit: 4% of the fund, i.e. its expected annual return.
Money for the future generations of a country populated by about 5.2 million inhabitants. Yes, a sum approaching 140 385 euros per inhabitant! The country is also recognized for its quality of life, which is said to be the best in the world: high wages, very low unemployment below 5%! And the strength of the banks and the average per capita annual salary is around $ 98,930: 3.5 times higher than the European average
However, they do not consume petroleum because Norwegian electricity is almost exclusively produced by its hydroelectric dams (at 99%), the country is the world’s sixth-largest producer of hydroelectric power in 2014.
The growth forecast for 2016 (+ 1.3% according to Coface) shows the need to develop other industrial activities.

Elected the world’s happiest country in 2017 according to the new World Happiness Report, http://worldhappiness.report/ followed by Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Finland. Life in Norway is sweet.